OFF-WORLD COLONIES AND THE SCRAMBLE FOR THE STARS

Military: War

Global resources plunged as the race for the stars led to Megacorps being created & war to follow on its heels as they fought to control off-world planets and colonies.

Global resources struggled under the ever-growing mass of humanity, while at the same time UN think tanks sought ways to supplement the planet’s needs. Government sponsored incentives were offered to any individuals and corporations that could develop and deplete extraterrestrial resources. The rush to develop orbital manufacturing facilities, high capacity reusable space planes, and off planet colonies was on. First among these companies were Tusk International, who already had basic infrastructure on Mars, and their intellectual rival and rapidly rising upstart Koenig Origin.   Koenig devoted its efforts toward providing high value resources for the planet. They built orbiting manufacturing facilities to develop genetic and organic based products that could only be grown in a micro-gee environment. They spun out aluminum and steel girders and built orbital modules out of nickel mined from rocky asteroids. However, it was the various corporation bases now dotting the moon that became the company’s main source of income. The moon had long been known to have vast, easily accessible deposits of deuterium (H3). Koenig Origin, and others, dotted the moon with semi-automated harvester and refining stations. Mass drivers sent the fuel back to Earth, to be collected upon splashdown at one of several oceananding zones. Koenig Origin developed huge coastal deuterium fusion plants powered by large fuel tanks. Their smaller fusion plants continue to power vehicles, robotics, office buildings, and even weapons systems. Koenig Origin energy is still used in this period by all nations and corporations, aside from a few small niche markets serviced by smaller companies or government ministries.   While Koenig sealed up the power production market, Tusk looked outward, sending probes to various targets of opportunity such as Mars, Io, the Oort cloud, and beyond. Orbital drydocks, Martian colonies and stations on Jupiter’s moons were only the first grand step. Tusk had a plan revolving around the discovery of several anomalies within the solar system. Prior to the establishment of many of the stations, Tusk physicists theorized that these anomalies were in fact wormholes, opening into other solar systems. Given a high enough energy boost via enhanced gamma rays, the physicists theorized that the wormholes could be opened and stabilized.   In 2035 Tusk Interplanetary activated the first of its transit hubs and our very understanding of humanity shifted. Company probe ships discovered several wormholes in our solar system that led to empty but fertile and pristine Earth-like planets, each in turn surrounded by wormholes leading to even more empty Earth-like planets. Nobody was sure what made these wormholes, nor for what purpose, but everyone knew one thing – whoever occupied these planets would become incredibly wealthy.   Governments around the world quickly passed legislation banning corporations from heading to these planets. Legislation that was swiftly ignored as every corporation with sufficient resources scrambled to make colony and warships. Tusk International, however, was ideally poised to exploit these systems. It had stations positioned around each of the gateways and colony ships ready to launch. It quickly expanded the size of each station to serve as a customs and provisioning hub for ships transiting through the gatways. Tusk took a cut of every transaction on its stations, on every ship transiting through, and sent their own colonizing efforts through as well.   This period is known only as the The Scramble for the Stars and saw corporations pour all their rescources into building these ships in the fight over new planets. This was the beginning of the true megacorporations as we now know them. The strongest survived and evolved, growing more powerful and influential each time they conquered a new planet and harvested its resources. Back on Earth the refugee crisis continued, global economies weakened, and fossil fuels dried up. What should have been a golden age in Earth’s history became a time of civil unrest and broken alliances.   Individual power cell technology, developed by the Pak-Kim Corporation, made them incredibly wealthy for several months until other megacorps stole the technology, touching off a bout of corporate infighting the world had never previously seen. Much of the blame for this conflict was laid at the feet of Koenig Origin who saw Pak-Kim as a rival to be destroyed. Koenig wasn’t successful in destroying their rival and took such severe financial losses in their battle with Pak-Kim that they crumbled under their own weight. Koenig was dismantled and its assets quickly absorbed by the ever-growing megacorps they once dominated.   After a multi-decade expedition through an array of wormholes they controlled, Shenzhen Solutions returned with Neurolink technology in the early 2070s. Shenzhen Solutions scientists claim they developed the technology during the voyage, but there is some doubt among Earth based scientists about how they were able to develop such advanced technology so quickly and so far from the advances of technology on Earth.By this point, the megacorporations had gotten a hold of Earth, with blatant disregard for existing governments. These corps still have the planet in a vice and are unwilling to let it go.   Technology rapidly evolved in unusual directions after the scramble for the stars. The megacorporations were quick to claim the changes as benefits of access to more wealth and resources. Not everyone believed this, however, and some thought there was more to the colonies than the corporations were admitting.